Article storage structure of motorcycle

ABSTRACT

A motorcycle includes an article storage structure and has a storage space for storing articles. The storage space is defined by a rear fender covering a rear wheel, a frame cover covering a rear portion of a motorcycle body, and a rider&#39;s seat and a passenger seat which are arranged in tandem in a longitudinal direction of the motorcycle. The storage space is provided with an onboard auxiliary machinery storage compartment for storing the onboard auxiliary machinery and an article storage compartment for storing the articles, which are formed with openings formed below the rider&#39;s seat and the passenger seat, respectively, to be opened or closed. An article holding member having a tubular shape, in which the article is stored, and having an upper end opening disposed within the article storage compartment is also disposed so as to extend rearward and upward from an upper surface of the rear fender below the rider&#39;s seat to a region of the article storage compartment.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an article storage structure of amotorcycle particularly suitable for storing and holding an article orlike.

2. Description of the Related Art

There are known some models of motorcycles each having an articlestorage compartment disposed above a rear fender covering a rear wheeland having a seat serving as a cover that opens and closes the storagecompartment. An onboard tool kit for daily check or other articles maybe stored in such article storage compartment.

For example, a motorcycle disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-OpenPublication No. 2001-233265 (Patent Document 1) has an article storagecompartment in which an onboard tool kit is held by a fixing band suchas rubber band.

However, if the onboard tool kit, which is one of the articles orbaggage, is secured in the article storage compartment by means of afixing band, it is troublesome to store or take out the onboard toolkit, and the structure is not always comfortable for a user.

In addition, since the tool kit is fixedly held in the article storagecompartment, it is not easy to store or take out other articles afterthe fixing thereof.

Furthermore, if the fixing band is used to hold the onboard tool kit, itmay be required to form hooks to a rear fender for engaging the band tothe rear fender. However, the forming of the hooks on the rear fenderrequires for forming holes in the rear fender, and hence, there is afear of entering of muddy water or like into the article storagecompartment disposed above the rear fender.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention was conceived in consideration of thecircumstances encountered in the prior art mentioned above and an objectof the present invention is to provide an article storage structure of amotorcycle that facilitates storage and take-out of an article, such asan onboard tool kit or other baggage.

The above and other objects can be achieved according to the presentinvention by providing an article storage structure of a motorcyclehaving a storage space for storing articles including an onboardauxiliary machinery and a baggage, the storage space being defined by arear fender covering a rear wheel, a frame cover covering a rear portionof a motorcycle body, and a rider's seat and a passenger seat which arearranged in tandem in a longitudinal direction of the motorcycle,wherein

the storage space is provided with an onboard auxiliary machinerystorage compartment for storing the onboard auxiliary machinery and anarticle storage compartment for storing the articles, the onboardauxiliary machinery storage compartment having an opening formed belowthe rider's seat, and the article storage compartment having an openingformed below the passenger seat, the opening of the article storagecompartment being opened and closed by opening and closing the passengerseat, and

an article holding member having a tubular shape, in which the articleis stored, is disposed so as to extend rearward and upward from an uppersurface of the rear fender below the rider's seat to a region of thearticle storage compartment, the article holding member having an upperend opening disposed within the article storage compartment.

In a preferred embodiment of the above aspect, it may be desired thatthe article holding member is formed independently from the rear fenderand has a tubular main body having an upper end opening in which thearticle is stored and a mount portion extending from a lower end of themain body toward the onboard auxiliary machinery storage compartmentlocated on a front side of the motorcycle body along an upper surface ofthe rear fender and is fastened to the rear fender, and an onboardauxiliary machinery holding member that holds the onboard auxiliarymachinery is formed integrally with the mount portion. It may be alsodesired that the article holding member is provided with engagingmembers to be engaged with a front portion and a rear portion of anarticle of bar-shaped tool on the laterally opposite sides at thecentral portion of the motorcycle body at portions in vicinities of theupper end opening and the mount portion to the rear fender,respectively.

Furthermore, the rider's seat and the passenger seat may be formedindependently from each other, the rider's seat is fixed to the body ofthe motorcycle, and the opening of the passenger seat locked by alocking member to be opened or closed by means of a key.

It may be desired that the rear fender, the frame cover, the rider'sseat and the passenger seat defining the article storage space aresupported by a rear frame, and the rear fender extends along a loweredge of the rear frame so as to be supported by the rear frame at frontand rear portions thereof and the rear fender is also suspended by therear frame at a central portion thereof by the article holding member,which is disposed on the rear fender, in which the central portion isattached to the rear frame at an upper end portion.

It may be also desired that the passenger seat has an upper surfacelocated above the rider's seat and a front end portion extendingdownward to substantially a same level as the upper surface of therider's seat so as to form a waist holding portion holding a waist ofthe rider, and a front portion of the opening of the article storagecompartment is formed along a lower edge of the waist holding portion.

The article holding member may be preferably disposed so that the upperend opening of the article holding member is disposed within the articlestorage compartment so as to face the opening of the article storagecompartment.

The article holding member may be disposed at a central position in thelateral direction of the motorcycle in a forward region of the articlestorage compartment.

According to the present invention, the article or baggage holdingmember having a tubular shape is disposed in the article storagecompartment having the opening formed below the passenger seat, and thearticles are stored in the article holding member. Accordingly, thearticles, such as the onboard tool kit and other baggage, can be easilystored and taken out simply by opening and closing the passenger seat.

The nature and further characteristic features of the present inventionwill be made clearer from the following descriptions made with referenceto the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 is a left side view of a motorcycle provided with an articlestorage structure according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a rear part of a motorcycle body shown in FIG.1;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the rear part of the motorcycle body shown inFIG. 2 with a rider's seat and a passenger seat removed;

FIG. 4 shows the rear part viewed from a direction of an arrow IV inFIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a cross sectional view taken along the line V-V in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a rear fender and an article (baggage)holding member shown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the rear fender and the article holdingmember shown in FIG. 5 as well as onboard auxiliary members or baggage;and

FIG. 8 is an exploded perspective view of rear frames, the rear fender,the article holding member and the like for illustrating an assemblythereof.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In the following, a preferred embodiment of the invention will bedescribed with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, thepresent invention is not limited to this embodiment. It is further to benoted that terms “upper”, “lower”, “right”, “left” and like terms areused herein with reference to the illustrations of the drawings or anactually standing state of a motorcycle.

With reference to FIG. 1, a motorcycle 1 has a body frame 2 and a headpipe 3 mounted on a front head portion of the body frame 2. The headpipe 3 is provided with a steering mechanism 7 including a pair of leftand right front forks 5 that rotatably supports a front wheel 4 and ahandle bar 6. The handle bar 6 can be operated to turn the front wheel 4left and right.

A pair of left and right tank rails 8 extend obliquely rearward anddownward from the opposite sides of the head pipe 3, and a pair of leftand right rear frames 9 extend obliquely rearward and upward from upperrear portions of the tank rails 8. The tank rails 8 and the rear frames9 form the body frame 2. An engine 10 is disposed below the tank rails8, and a fuel tank 11 is disposed above the tank rails 8. The engine 10and the fuel tank 11 are supported by the tank rails 8.

A pivot shaft or pin 12 extends across lower rear parts of the tankrails 8. A swing arm 13 is pivotally mounted on the pivot shaft 12 so asto extend rearward of the body frame 2. A rear wheel 14 is rotatablysupported on a shaft at the rear end of the swing arm 13.

As shown in FIG. 8, each of the left and right rear frames 9 isintegrally composed of a seat rail section 15 extending substantiallyhorizontally and a seat pillar section 16 extending forward and downwardfrom a middle or rear end part of the seat rail section 15 so as toprovide a triangular shape as viewed from the side.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a rider's seat 17 and a passenger seat 18 arearranged in tandem in the longitudinal direction of the motorcycle andsupported by the seat rail sections 15 of the pair of left and rightrear frames 9.

A front cowling 19 of the motorcycle 1 covers the steering mechanism 7disposed above the front wheel 4, and both side portions of the rearframe 9 of the rear portion of the motorcycle body are also covered byframe covers 20, respectively, so as to reduce air resistance andimprove an outer configuration of the motorcycle. The front cowling 19is supported by the tank rails 8, and the frame covers 20 are supportedby the rear frames 9.

As shown in FIGS. 3 to 5, a rear fender 21 that covers above the rearwheel 14 is disposed between the left and right rear frames 9. The rearfender 21 extends obliquely rearward and upward along the bottom edge ofthe seat pillar sections 16 of the rear frames 9. As shown in FIG. 8, arear fender cover 58 is attached to a rear lower part of the rear fender21, and then a mud guard 59 is attached to the rear lower part of therear fender 21. The rear fender 21 is supported by the rear frames 9 atthe rear end and the front end.

As shown in FIGS. 3 to 5, a storage space 22 for storing articlesincluding onboard auxiliary machinery and baggage is defined by the rearfender 21, the frame covers 20, the rider's seat 17 and the passengerseat 18. The onboard auxiliary machinery includes a battery 23, an ECU24, a fuse box 25 and a tilt sensor 26. The baggage includes an onboardtool kit 27, a U-lock 28 and a bar-shaped tool 29 (for example, a tankrod for keeping the fuel tank upright during maintenance of themotorcycle).

The storage space 22 includes an onboard auxiliary machinery storagecompartment 31 for storing the onboard auxiliary machinery having anopening 30 formed below the rider's seat 17 and an article storagecompartment 33 for storing articles including the baggage having anopening 32 disposed below the passenger seat 18. The article storagecompartment 33 extends from a portion directly below the opening 32toward the front side of the motorcycle.

The rider's seat 17 and the passenger seat 18 are formed separately asindependent portions. As shown in FIG. 5, the rider's seat 17 is fixedby a front mount portion 36 thereof engaged with a seat mount portion 37of the rear frame 9 and a rear engaging portion 34 thereof engaged witha seat engaging portion 35 of the rear frame 9. Thus, the opening 30 ofthe onboard auxiliary machinery storage compartment 31 is normallyclosed by the rider's seat 17.

The passenger seat 18 is fixed through the engagement of a rear engagingportion 38 with a frame engaging portion 39 (FIG. 4) of the rear frame 9and through the engagement of a front hook 40 with a seat lock striker41 serving as a lock device mounted on the rear frame 9. The seat lockstriker 41 is unlocked by key manipulation to thereby release the fronthook 40. Therefore, the opening 32 of the article storage compartment 33can be opened by opening the passenger seat 18 by unlocking the seatlock striker 41 or closed by closing the passenger seat 18 by lockingthe seat lock striker 41.

An upper surface 42 of the passenger seat 18 is located above therider's seat 17, and the front end of the passenger seat 18 extendsdownward to substantially the same level as an upper surface 43 of therider's seat 17. Therefore, the front end of the passenger seat 18serves as a waist holding portion 44 that holds the waist of the rider.As shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, a front portion 32A of the opening 32 of thearticle storage compartment 33 constitutes a portion expanded forward ofthe motorcycle body along the lower edge of the waist holding part 44 ofthe passenger seat 18.

As shown in FIG. 5, an article holding member 45 formed separately fromthe rear fender 21 so as to extend upward from the upper surface of therear fender 21 disposed below the rider's seat 17 toward a front sideregion 33A of the article storage compartment 33 located rearward andupward of the upper surface of the rear fender 21.

As shown in FIGS. 6 and 8, the article holding member 45 includes atubular main body 46 formed with an upper end opening 47 and mountflanges 48 formed integrally with the lower end portion of the main body46 so as to serve as a mount portion. A box-shaped onboard auxiliarymachinery holding member 49, which is opened downward, is formedintegrally with the main body 46 and the mount flanges 48.

The attachment flanges 48 are formed on the laterally opposite sides ofthe onboard auxiliary machinery holding member 49 and utilized to attachthe article holding member 45 and the onboard auxiliary machineryholding member 49 to the rear fender 21. More specifically, the mountflange 48 are formed with through holes 50 at forward and rearwardportions of the motorcycle body, and the article holding member 45 andthe onboard auxiliary machinery holding member 49 are fastened to therear fender 21 by means of bolts, not shown, to be inserted into thethrough holes 50.

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 7, under the condition such that the rear fender21 is attached to the rear frames 9, the mount flange 48 of the articleholding member 45 extends from the lower end portion of the main body 46toward the onboard auxiliary machinery storage compartment 31 locatedforward of the motorcycle body along the upper surface of the rearfender 21 along with the onboard auxiliary machinery holding member 49.

The fuse box 25, the tilt sensor 26 and the like are disposed on theupper surface of the onboard auxiliary machinery holding member 49, andthe ECU 24 is held between the lower surface of the onboard auxiliarymachinery holding member 49 and the rear fender 21. The battery 23 isheld in a battery holder 51 located on a front end portion of the rearfender 21. In this manner, the fuse box 25, the tilt sensor 26, the ECU24 and the battery 23 are held within the onboard auxiliary machinerystorage compartment 31.

The main body 46 of the article holding member 45 is a member forstoring articles, baggage and the like specifically such as onboard toolkit 27, and the main body 46 is disposed in the front region 33A of thearticle storage compartment 33 arranged in front of the seat lockstriker 41 in the article storage compartment 33. Therefore, the upperend opening 47 of the main body 46 is positioned within the articlestorage compartment 33 in the front portion 32A of the opening 32thereof. The onboard tool kit 27 stored in the main body 46 is held inthe main body 46 under pressure by a stopper 53 disposed on the bottomof the waist holding portion 44 of the passenger seat 18.

As shown in FIGS. 6 to 8, the main body 46 is provided with upper endflanges 54 protruding in the opposing lateral directions from portionsnear the upper end opening 47. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the upper endflanges 54 are fastened to the pair of left and right rear frames 9,respectively. Thus, the rear fender 21, which is supported by the rearframes 9 at the front and rear end portions, is suspended from the rearframes 9 at the central portion through the article holding member 45.

As shown in FIGS. 3 to 5, the baggage holding member 45 is disposed atthe central portion in the lateral direction in the rear region of theonboard auxiliary machinery storage compartment 31 and the front region33A of the article storage compartment 33. Therefore, in the frontregion 33A of the baggage storage compartment 33, articles can be storedin the spaces on the laterally opposite sides of the article holdingmember 45. For example, an article or baggage, such as U-lock 28 havinga substantially U shape, can be stored in the space as shown in FIG. 7.

Furthermore, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 6, the main body 46 of the articleholding member 45 has a rear engaging portion 57 protruding from aportion near the upper end opening 47, and the onboard auxiliarymachinery holding member 49 has a pair of front engaging portions 56protruding from portions near the mount flanges 48. The front engagingportions 56 and the rear engaging portion 57 are positioned on both thelaterally opposite sides of the central portion of the main body 46. Thebar-shaped tool 29 is inserted into opening 32 of the article storagecompartment 33 so as to be engaged with and held, at both the endportions thereof, by the front and rear engaging portions 56 and 57,respectively.

According to the present embodiment of the structures and charactersmentioned above, the following advantageous functions and/or effects (1)to (8) will be attainable.

(1) The article holding member 45 is disposed in the article storagecompartment 33, which has the opening 32 below the passenger seat 18 inwhich the tubular main body 46 extends upward, and the onboard tool kit27 and the other articles or baggage are stored in the main body 46.Therefore, the onboard tool kit 27 can be easily taken out from orstored in the article storage compartment 33 simply by opening thepassenger seat 18, and the onboard tool kit 27 can be reliably held inthe main body 46 by the pressing force of the stopper 53 on thepassenger seat 18 simply by closing the passenger seat 18. Thus, theonboard tool kit 27 does not need to be fixed by a rubber band or thelike and can be conveniently stored or removed, and the convenience foruse can be also improved.

(2) In the article storage compartment 33, the onboard tool kit 27 isstored in the main body 46 of the article holding member 45, and theother articles than the onboard tool kit 27 are stored in the regionsother than the article holding member 45. In short, the onboard tool kit27 and the other articles can be separately stored, and accordingly, theonboard tool kit 27 and the other articles can be more easily stored andremoved.

(3) It is necessary for the onboard auxiliary machinery holding memberholding the onboard equipment and the holder holding the bar-shaped tool29 to be formed in conformity with the onboard auxiliary machinery andbar-shaped tool 29, respectively, so that the shapes and structuresthereof may be complicated. Therefore, if they are formed integrallywith the rear fender 21, the molding die for the rear fender 21 isobliged to make enlarge and have a complicated structure.

However, according to the embodiment of the present invention, theonboard auxiliary machinery holding member 49 is formed integrally withthe article holding member 45 and is formed separately from the rearfender 21, and in addition, the front engaging parts 56 and the rearengaging part 57 that hold the bar-shaped tool 29 are formed integrallywith the onboard auxiliary machinery holding member 49 and the articleholding member 45, respectively, which are formed integrally with eachother. Therefore, the molding die for the rear fender 21 has a simplestructure, and the productivity of the die is improved, thus, themanufacturing cost being reduced.

(4) The onboard auxiliary machinery holding member 49 is formedseparately from the rear fender 21 but integrally with the articleholding member 45. Therefore, the onboard auxiliary machinery includingthe ECU 24, the fuse box 25 and the tilt sensor 26 can be preliminarilyassembled on the onboard auxiliary machinery holding member 49.Therefore, the assembling working of the onboard auxiliary machinery canbe performed in a production line in the pre-assembling stage other thanthe assembling line of the motorcycle 1. Thus, the motorcycle 1 can bemanufactured with improved flexibility with reduced manufacturing cost.

(5) The rear fender 21 is supported directly by the rear frames 9 at thefront end portion and the rear end portion thereof and is also suspendedby the rear frames 9 at the central portion by the article holdingmember 45. Therefore, the supporting strength of the rear fender 21 isincreased, and the durability thereof can be improved.

For example, even if the onboard tool kit 27 in the main body 46 of thearticle holding member 45 receives an impact load when the motorcycle isrunning, the rear frames 9 bear the impact load and prevent the rearfender 21 from damaging.

(6) Since, the mount flanges 48 of the article holding member 45supported by the rear frames 9 are fastened to the rear fender 21 insuch a manner as described above, the rear fender 21 provides partiallya double structure by the mount flange 48, thereby improving therigidity of the rear frame and hence preventing the rear fender 21 frombeing vibrated.

(7) Since the passenger seat 18 has the waist holding portion 44, theopening 32 of the article storage compartment 33 has the front portion32A as a forward extension. Accordingly, since the area of the opening32 of the article storage compartment 33 is enlarged by the frontportion 32A of the opening 32, the article or baggage can be more easilystored in or removed from the article storage compartment 33.

(8) Since the onboard tool kit 27 is not fixed, for example, by means ofa fixing band such as a rubber band, it is not necessary to form thehooks for engaging the fixing band to the rear fender 21. Therefore, itis also not required to form any hole, which may be formed when thehooks are formed, in the rear fender, so that muddy water or the like isprevented from entering the article storage compartment 33 and theonboard auxiliary machinery storage compartment 31 through these holes.

It is further to be noted that the present invention is not limited tothe described embodiment and many other changes and modifications may bemade without departing from the scopes of the appended claims.

1. An article storage structure of a motorcycle having a storage spacefor storing articles including an onboard auxiliary machinery and abaggage, the storage space being defined by a rear fender covering arear wheel, a frame cover covering a rear portion of a motorcycle body,and a rider's seat and a passenger seat which are arranged in tandem ina longitudinal direction of the motorcycle, wherein the storage space isprovided with an onboard auxiliary machinery storage compartment forstoring the onboard auxiliary machinery and an article storagecompartment for storing the articles, the onboard auxiliary machinerystorage compartment having an opening formed below the rider's seat, andthe article storage compartment having an opening formed below thepassenger seat, the opening of the article storage compartment beingopened and closed by opening and closing the passenger seat, and anarticle holding member having a tubular shape, in which the article isstored, is disposed so as to extend rearward and upward from an uppersurface of the rear fender below the rider's seat to a region of thearticle storage compartment, the article holding member having an upperend opening disposed within the article storage compartment.
 2. Thearticle storage structure of a motorcycle according to claim 1, whereinthe article holding member is formed independently from the rear fenderand has a tubular main body having an upper end opening in which thearticle is stored and a mount portion extending from a lower end of themain body toward the onboard auxiliary machinery storage compartmentlocated on a front side of the motorcycle body along an upper surface ofthe rear fender and is fastened to the rear fender, and an onboardauxiliary machinery holding member that holds the onboard auxiliarymachinery is formed integrally with the mount portion.
 3. The articlestorage structure of a motorcycle according to claim 2, wherein thearticle holding member is provided with engaging members to be engagedwith a front portion and a rear portion of an article of bar-shaped toolon the laterally opposite sides at the central portion of the motorcyclebody at portions in vicinities of the upper end opening and the mountportion to the rear fender, respectively.
 4. The article storagestructure of a motorcycle according to claim 1, wherein the rider's seatand the passenger seat are formed independently from each other, therider's seat is fixed to the body of the motorcycle, and the opening ofthe passenger seat locked by a locking member to be opened or closed bymeans of a key.
 5. The article storage structure of a motorcycleaccording to claim 1, wherein the rear fender, the frame cover, therider's seat and the passenger seat defining the article storage spaceare supported by a rear frame, and the rear fender extends along a loweredge of the rear frame so as to be supported by the rear frame at frontand rear portions thereof and the rear fender is also suspended by therear frame at a central portion thereof by the article holding member,which is disposed on the rear fender, in which the central portion isattached to the rear frame at an upper end portion.
 6. The articlestorage structure of a motorcycle according to claim 1, wherein thepassenger seat has an upper surface located above the rider's seat and afront end portion extending downward to substantially a same level asthe upper surface of the rider's seat so as to form a waist holdingportion holding a waist of the rider, and a front portion of the openingof the article storage compartment is formed along a lower edge of thewaist holding portion.
 7. The article storage structure of a motorcycleaccording to claim 6, wherein the article holding member is disposed sothat the upper end opening of the article holding member faces theopening of the article storage compartment.
 8. The article storagestructure of a motorcycle according to claim 1, wherein the articleholding member is disposed at a central position in the lateraldirection of the motorcycle in a forward region of the article storagecompartment.